Bobby ni Kubittake

Bobby's in deep is certainly a very interesting work - short and experimental, but it holds a lot of content, animation and background themes wise. Which is a bit surprising, considering the fact that the anime was largely produced to promote a young pop idol, who voiced the main character.

Bobby has a pretty plain personality and he's also a man of few words. This somehow rubs off on many of the anime's characteristics. It's interesting, that most of what we get to learn about Bobby is not from him personally, but through the girl that is writing him letters, trough his father that's scolding him ... and through dialogs between other characters. This kinda fits Bobby's simple, carefree character and creates a care-free mood for the anime. At the same time, it projects the genuinely increasing boredom within the youth in those (and todays) times.

Some viewer might complain about the fact, that we only get to know as much about Bobby as he interacts with other people (almost nothing). On the up side, because of this, we are put into an interesting perspective of a random observer and all the other pieces, like in real life, are left to our own judgment and assumptions.

Another interesting case of this perspective of a random observer appears in the fact that we only get to see a silhouette of Bobby's secret admirer. This way, her looks are left to our own imagination and we don't get to know about her any more than Bobby does. It certainly is an interesting technique, which lowers the cost of animation and at the same time it maybe even feels more rewarding to the viewer than the classic character presentation.

If you've got a sharp eye, you'll soon notice that Bobby's in Deep contains a few social critiques. Bobby's mostly indifferent character (except when it comes to his bike) is a way of criticizing the important Japanese belief, which pushes the youth to educate themselves as highly as possible and land a job in a respectable company - at all costs.
The school system is also criticized, when Bobby says: "The school only knows how to send the notes to home, because it's the cheapest." In truth, no one really wants to bother with the problems of youth and lend a helping hand, which sadly mostly holds true even today.

The animation in Bobby's in Deep is quite special and it would be unfair to write it off as cheap. It's true that the story is often represented through a slide show of hand drawn pictures and the animation is abstracted. But I like to imagine it's a representation of Bobby's slightly confused view of the world, and in this way the viewer experiences it through Bobby's eyes.

Most of the second half of the movie will be greatly appreciated by the biker fans, as it includes a few sunny scenes with the motorbikes in their element. Towards the end, there is an exceptionally unique riding scene, where the camera switches to first person view and the picture falls apart into simple black & white lines and sketches. There is no music, just the sound of the bike and the tires screeching. It's awesome and definitely worth a watch.

The ending is debatable and a bit provocative. Some people may be disappointed and state that it falls short. I, on the other hand, find it quite catharsic. Bobby is a rebel against the norms of society, the strict tradition, the school system and the whole anime is dipped in his beliefs. But, as no one in the world is perfect, the ending represents the other pole, which favors the general rules of society and the system.
All in all, Bobby didn't do anything wrong, he lived by his beliefs and acted as he saw fit. After all, there is a thin line between a carefree and a careless attitude which, in a series of unfortunate events, can result in a fatal outcome. Even so, the ending is quite open. It just serves as a reminder, that life isn't always one-sided and compromises are often necessary.

P.S. You can read more about Bobby in this great article on ANN: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/buried-treasure/2007-05-17 .

Having just seen Bobby's In Deep for the first time, and having read the reviews that have been posted for the film to date, I feel compelled to post a review of my own in praise of the film for several strong positive qualities which others seem to have missed.

To my understanding, Bobby's In Deep is a 45 minute short film from 1985 adapting a 1980 novel by the same name. The main character Bobby (real name Akihiko Nomura) is a 17/18 year old motorcycle enthusiast who has toured around Japan taking photos and submitting them to amateur motorcycle magazines. The movie opens with Bobby ... receiving a fan letter from a girl who has seen some of his photos and has been moved by the power of the imagery. The girl's voice narrates the letter, and Bobby narrates his reply as he sends her his answer back to her, setting up a romantic back and forth exchange of love letters which plays out as events in Bobby's young life start to rapidly unfold, starting with his decision to drop out of high school two weeks before summer vacation. The school notifies his parents of his absence, he has a confrontation with his father, and he winds up thrown out of the house to fend for himself and live with the consequences of his decision with nothing but his motorcycle and the clothes on his back.

I feel compelled to note that there isn't any indication in the movie that Bobby is a juvenile delinquent. He doesn't hang out with a bad crowd, or do drugs, or even talk back to his parents when they yell at him. He just seems to be a free spirit that doesn't value the kind of lifestyle that higher education and the traditional Japanese value system have to offer him, so he accepts his parents' disapproval and goes out into the world to find his own path to adulthood.

Bobby's In Deep has a rather thin story for an anime film. It is barely 45 minutes in length, after all. To deal with this, the film dispenses with the backstory and focuses on present events. We don't know how Bobby picked up the Western nickname, where he got the motorcycle, why he's such a bad student, or his other potential aspects as a character. What we do know is that it is the early 1980's, the peak of Japan's post-war miracle economy, and Bobby is a very nontraditional young person traveling the country on his motorcycle, coming of age, and maybe even falling in love in the unique environment of that time and place, and everything the movie does with that in 45 minutes is rather impressive.

What Bobby's In Deep lacks in story, it more than makes up for in creative direction and visuals. The film is no Angel's Egg (released the same year, interestingly) but deserves some recognition as experimental filmmaking for its skillful inclusion of still photography, brush-like watercolors, and imaginatively rendered representation of light and shadow into every exquisitely hand-drawn frame of the animation. It is a brief experience, but remarkable if you are looking for it.

In 1985 Bobby's In Deep may have been an unexceptional short film with some shiny animation, meant to promote a book and the careers of some aspiring J-drama personalities. Thirty years later, it is a time capsule of 1985 Japan with the power to transport you back and give you an idea what it felt like to be young, rebellious and in love in the sunset years of Showa era Japan, even if you are too young to have ever experienced anything of the kind yourself. For devoted Japanophiles it is a real gem. If you let the film's unique perspective slip by you, worrying too much about why Bobby's grades are poor, then you have really missed out on something special.